I've always wondered why the Shuttles don't operate slightly later flights. From DCA-LGA, DL's last flight is at 8:30 PM and US at 9PM. Is there any reason they don't operate to 10 or 11PM?

Seeing that NYC is a 24 hour city, and DC isn't bad itself, I would think that later flights would be natural. Also, wouldn't businessmen like the option of staying late at work and catching a late flight?

There is also little demand for the late night flights, the Shuttle is all about business travel and few business people favor late night departures and arrivals - a notable exception is the LAX-NYC redeye flights.

Way back, DL (before it took over the Shuttle operation) had flights between LGA and BOS that departed around 1000PM in each direction....the LGA-BOS flight was an L1011 that flew ATL-LGA-BOS....the flights were never very full (especially that 1011 flight) except on Friday and Sunday nights when they would be packed with college students living in Boston and going to NYC to visit their parents/family. I too was in school at the time (we are talking about 20 years ago) are fares were quite cheap, about $50 roundtrip, less than half of what the shuttle charged back them.

If I'm not mistaken the shuttle routes are catered to the business traveler. It would make sense that the flights would run during business hours to the largest business cities in the US. US even recently upgraded the shuttle to all A319 which are equiped with laptop computer power ports.